In the Dungeons and Dragons fantasy role-playing game, a gibbering mouther is a horrible aberration seemingly drawn from a lunatic's nightmares. It resembles a writhing mass of grey flesh covered with dozens of randomly placed eyes and mouths, of different sizes and shapes.

Publication history

The gibbering mouther bears a passing resemblance to the shoggoth of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition (1977-1988)

The gibbering mouther first appears in the module The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan (1980), and later appears in Monster Manual II (1983).

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989-1999)

The gibbering mouther was detailed in Dragon #160 (December 1990), in the "Ecology of the Gibbering Mouther".

The gibbering mouther appears for the Al-Qadim campaign setting in Assassin Mountain (1993).

The gibbering mouther then appeared for the Forgotten Realms setting in the revised Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (1993), and was later reprinted in the Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume One (1994).

The greater gibbering mouther appears for the Greyhawk setting in Scarlet Brotherhood (1999).

Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 edition (2000-2002)

The gibbering mouther appears in the Monster Manual for this edition (2000).

The gibbering orb is introduced in the Epic Level Handbook (2002).

The ancient gibbering mouther appears in Dungeon #85 (March 2001).

Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition (2003-2007)

The gibbering mouther appears in the revised Monster Manual for this edition (2003), and then in Lords of Madness (2005).

Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition (2008-)

The gibbering mouther appears in the Monster Manual for this edition (2008), as part of the gibbering beast entry, along with the gibbering abomination and the gibbering orb.

Characteristics and habits

The gibbering mouther is not regarded as an evil creature, but in order to sustain its mad self, it must feast upon the bodily fluids and sanity of mortal creatures, preferably intelligent ones. It attacks by spitting strings of protoplasmic flesh which end in a mouth and one or more eyes at opponents, which then bite them, causing both acid and blinding damage. When it has defeated an opponent, it swallows them whole, and then proceeds to suck the bodily fluids and sanity. It is possible for the victim to cut their way out.

Having so many eyes, gibbering mouthers are difficult to sneak up on.

Gibbering mouthers can speak Common, but seldom speak anything other than mad babble and gibberish.

They are regarded as neutral in alignment, but have distinctly evil habits.

Powers and abilities

Gibbering mouthers can produce a constant gibbering that confuses all creatures within 60 feet. They can also change nearby ground (whether earth or stone) to the consistency of quicksand. The mouther can move unimpaired through the quicksand.

A gibbering mouther can loose a stream of spittle that ignites on contact with the air, temporarily blinding creatures within 60 feet.

Society

Gibbering mouthers are solitary creatures and do not have sufficient intelligence to form any kind of society.

References